The Baader Meinhof Complex Review
Posted by Erik Luers on 09.12.2009
A look at a Germany from forty years ago...........
Moritz Bleibtreu ... Andreas Baader
Martina Gedeck ... Ulrike Meinhof
Johanna Wokalek ... Gudrun Ensslin
Nadja Uhl ... Brigitte Mohnhaupt
Jan Josef Liefers ... Peter Homann
Stipe Erceg ... Holger Meins
Niels-Bruno Schmidt ... Jan Carl Raspe
Vinzenz Kiefer ... Peter-Jürgen Boock
Simon Licht ... Horst Mahler
Alexandra Maria Lara ... Petra Schelm
Uli Edel’s new film, The Baader Meinhof Complex, recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (which it lost to Japan’s Departures), is an always thought-provoking and interesting historical look back at late 1960s/early 1970s Germany. Back then, student protests were breaking out across the country (and all around the world) in response to the Vietnam War, the Israel-Palestine conflict, fascism, and other shoddy government provoked controversies which many people were against and hoping to resolve. Germany’s police force and statesmen officials fought back in violent outbursts, desperately trying to control the thousands of crowds that protested loudly.
Some groups, specifically the RAF (Red Army Faction) in this film’s case, responded with violent acts of their own, blurring the line between the good and the bad. Rather than simply fight back by observing civil disobedience, the RAF broke their own members out of prison, took hostages, and sometimes used their firearms for murder. All of this for love, peace, and kindness. Many members were regarded as heroes by their fellow youth, and enemies of the state by their government elders. How could the RAF be silenced and should they have been are two key questions that Edel’s film brings up. That it has trouble answering them is not so much a sorry reflection on the film’s part as it is a statement on the overall complexity of the issue.
While the first half of the film is at times a little slow and plodding, it is not without its merits. In the very first scene, we are introduced to Mrs. Meinhoff, the journalist who becomes infatuated and entangled in the faction, and she is played by Martina Gedek, giving a very good performance that doesn’t always get the screentime it deserves. This title character takes a backseat to many of the other supporting players throughout the film, and I wondered what her significance would be. Come to think of it, I found myself thinking about that for quite a few of the characters. Case in point, one young fan is introduced in a not so intimate bathtub scene, and he is all but forgotten until the final thirty minutes of the film. His character possesses an importance that I’m not sure the film is completely aware of as he appears to be the up and coming second generation of RAF members that Baader warns officials of.
The first half is mostly setup, unsurprising for a story of any kind, but here you can almost feel Bernd Eichinger’s screenplay setting up his characters and situations with the intentions of using them later on. Many seeds are constantly being planted. Commendable, to be sure, but also a little frustrating. The story sets up twenty clues with the intention of using only ten. Still, the scenes in the members’ apartment used to give instructions on their next plan (of attack) are involving, and the “creating of the bomb” moments, procedural but effective. A nice montage of world rallies is also used to good effect early on.
The second half of the film is where The Baader Meinhof Complex takes its stride, as it is more personal and intimate than the previous hour. Instead of following eight characters, we follow four, and the film finally settles in as the original group is put in prison. It is a dark and cold setting, and is a nice contract to the scenes in the bright, sunny Syrian desert that we are treated to earlier (those sequences meander more than they entice). We follow Baader, Meinhof, and their associates as they go to court, protest judges, and frequently curse the system. We start to develop sympathy for these men and women, as they appear more sickly, disillusioned, and helpless as the months march on. A hunger protest leaves them even more worse for wear. They are alone in their small, compact, little rooms with a TV and a few books, as the new RAF raises havoc on the outside. Perhaps their message has been misinterpreted.
In the second half, the film becomes a thriller of sorts, not one that finds itself racing against time but one that sees its dramatic structure quickly heightened. When one man (the ever popular Bruno Ganz) is informed that the RAF scandals have been put to rest, the German government breathes a sigh of relief. Edel then cuts to news footage of the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, and we quickly realize that the trouble is far from over. Including this now infamous event only widens the scope of the film, and when the dead bodies are shown sprawled out in blood across the floor, the film takes on another level of dread. But who’s to blame?
The film lives by the common belief, “those that live by the sword, die by the sword,” and there are quite a few murders depicted on screen here that seem to be depicted quasi-seriously. A bunch of suited up businessmen are gunned down as their car continues to drive down the street for what feels like an eternity, finally bumping into the sidewalk and out of harm’s way. There is a hostage situation that goes awry, enabling one RAF member to murder a man as his wife unsuspectingly waits for him on the patio. A woman is seen hunched over a baby carriage in the middle of the road. Now, what’s in that carriage you may ask? Not a baby, I can tell you that much. Best to be creative in your means of attack.
What I found particularly enjoyable about the style of the film was its rousing authenticity. Using stock footage derived from actual news broadcasts from the period, Edel edits this material into his staged, dramatized footage seamlessly. We see an exterior shot of a prison and the image is a little blurry and unclear; it was probably shot on video. We then are taken inside the prison to the new footage Edel has created. We are told (by broadcasters from the 1970s) that a Lufthansa flight had been hijacked and sure enough, actual news footage of the event is shown, and the technique is creative while not necessarily an artistic cop out. American broadcasters also report on the events, and Edel shows the viewer just how widespread these situations were. If you have access to the material, and if you know how to properly use it (that is, not as a crutch), then I say go for it, and Edel does and succeeds. What I criticized in Gus Van Sant's Milk I find myself applauding in this new film.
As already noted, the film doesn’t always work. The first half leaves us wanting less and the second half leaves us wanting more, and this unevenness may frustrate some. There are quite a few times where it seems like the story is ready to wrap up and call it a night, but it continues on until a conclusion in a forest that seems too abrupt to leave much an impact; most will wonder how the story will tie up, and they will probably leave disappointed.
There is however a spirit to this movie that is commendable, and its technical achievements help to intensify a pretty tense film; the subject is very involving, and one gets the sense that the happenings are all real and not much a victim of action movie outlandishness. The second half features excellent performances in tune with one another and direction that is snazzy and paced appropriately. When two men (briefly poking their heads out to taunt the police force) are bombarded and trapped in a building complex by canisters of tear gas, The Baader Meinhof Complex really comes together. While its parts are greater than its whole, it is a thoroughly compelling job nonetheless, and a nice addition to the New New German Cinema.
The 411: The Baader Meinhof Complex is an intense, well acted, strangely paced film that works more often than it doesn't. The first half seems to struggle to find its footing, but the second half is very intense and well directed. The editing is inspired and professionally done. The screenplay, detailed but effectively so. Edel includes American pop songs over the opening and closing credits that seemed a little out of place, but what can you do. Here is a film about a slice of German history that perhaps we're not all too familiar with. It inspires you to read up and learn more, and what's wrong with that?
